We are finally at the end of the year and on a personal level, I have completed my post-graduate degree in Public Health. I will like to share with you in this post, my scholarship winning essay that made the MSc degree possible. It brings back great memories for me yet again. Firstly, writing the essay on the move. I was actually attending a conference in Abuja when the opportunity came up and I had to research and craft the essay on the go. Education has always been a passion for me and I already had some ideas on improving the educational sector, so when I saw the essay topic, it caught my fancy immediately. Next, the tension of the finals. Defending the essay before a panel was not easy. The panelists wanted to know the underlying premises and assumptions of the idea and they wanted you to prove the workability of your plan. I was glad that I was successful. Finally, announcing the winners. There were six scholarships up for grabs that night and twenty finalists. It was a wonderful feeling to be called up as a winner. Great memories indeed. Please enjoy the essay.
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In 2000, 192 United Nations member states agreed to achieve 8 international development goals by 2015. One of these Millennium Development goals is the achievement of Universal Basic education: “By 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling and free education for all.”
More than half way to the 2015 deadline, many African countries find themselves in a situation where this seems to be a far off dream. With the poor quality of classroom facilities, increase in school drop outs, poor teacher training and union strikes, most countries are at a loss about how to move from here to actualising the 2015 vision.
We need your help.
In 750 words or less using Nigeria as a case study, what ground-breaking ideas can you offer to turn this situation around?
The second Millennium Development Goal (MDG) which aims to
achieve universal primary education is the only MDG that sets a 100% target
for its goal. It targets that by 2015, all children everywhere will be able
to complete a full course of primary schooling. This underscores the
importance of education in national development and also its key relevance in
realizing the other MDGs as it influences the efforts against poverty, gender
inequality and maternal and child mortality.
Sadly however, Nigeria seems to be far from this goal. The
net enrolment ratio in primary education in Nigeria was 62% in 2000 when the
MDGs were initially declared at the UN Millennium Summit and 65.2% in 2006.
With the target in 2015 being 100%, it is clear that the country’s progress
towards the goal is too slow. Other nations however have made good progress.
Nigeria’s neighbour, Ghana had a net enrolment of 60.9% in 2000 and 71.9% in
2006 while Rwanda had a net enrolment of 68.6% in 2000 and an astonishing 94%
in 2006.
In Nigeria today, there are close to 30 million children
of primary school age but 10 million of these children are not in school.
There is clearly a lack of capacity – infrastructural and human resources, to
place these children in primary school. At a recent forum, the current
Nigerian Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu was reported (in the Compass
Newspaper of Aug 29 2009) as stating that there are 87, 941 primary schools
of which 54, 434 are public primary schools (government owned). He also
stated that there is an urgent need for 22,000 new primary schools. This will
involve huge infrastructural and human resources to achieve the goal in 2015.
This is especially difficult in the light of the prevailing global economic
recession, dwindling revenues arising from crude oil and decreased influx of
donor aid into the country. How can we increase this much needed capacity
with just 6 years to go?
My idea will involve a revolutionary paradigm shift where
primary education is carried outside conventional classroom structures into
the community and utilize existing physical and social structures in the
community. Traditional schools presently do not have the capacity to enrol
the large number of children presently without primary education and this
idea will bypass the large infrastructural investment required to physically
construct schools as well as save time which it would have taken to build
those schools.
Every community, rural and urban, has meeting places such
as town halls, motor parks, mosques, churches, markets and traditional
rulers’ palaces. These can be the new venues where knowledge is transferred
to Nigerian children so that even in rural areas where there is a lack of
access to primary education, schools can now exist. They may not be ideal
places of learning but with some innovation and creativity, they could be
made suitable as places of learning for a few hours every day. For example,
if a primary school could be sited at a village market, it ensures that the
children of the rural market women will receive an education daily and still
assist their mother at the market.
The shortfall in the number of school teachers needed to
teach this massive number of new enrolees could be met by recruiting teachers
from members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) which mobilizes about
200,000 tertiary institution graduates annually for youth service. These
“Corpers” could be given preliminary training in teacher education at the
commencement of their orientation programme to enable them perform.
For these ideas to work there must be a well-coordinated
organisational structure to manage these large scale efforts across the three
tiers of government. Seasoned and relevant technocrats need to be recruited
to adapt the existing curriculum to achieve the stated objectives. There must
also be sufficient motivation and an increased pay package especially for
teachers serving in rural areas to serve as a matching incentive. Necessary
textbooks, desks and chairs could be purchased from the savings generated
from non-construction of new classrooms.
In conclusion, it must be emphasized that for these
community-driven efforts to yield fruit, effective community mobilisation
needs to be carried out with full community participation in the project from
initiation and planning, unto the implementation and evaluation phases of the
project. Educating children outside conventional classrooms may be a radical
idea but this may be a viable option in this season of scarce funds
especially with 2015 around the corner.
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